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Meep Meep…by Brad Marks

Hello folks. As the Twain saying goes, “rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated” (I know that was embellished by Paine, but I prefer this version ha). During these last two weeks I’ve joked that I was close to knocking on that heavenly door as we toiled away preparing for the annual Haunted Trail. The stress is off now as the event was held Friday and Saturday night. Still awaiting testimonials, but from the positive feedback we heard over the course of the two nights, I’d say we had a pretty successful haunt. What I can commit to without question is I’m officially exhausted from the stress, work and woeful lack of sleep it took to wrangle the chaos into shape before the guests started arriving. We owe a big thanks to everyone who jumped in to help including family (Ron/Derek), friends (including Brad/Jan) and pretty much all the Intrigued staff (except the lawyer dept that are still upset I took away their “butt copier”). Tomorrow back on the training program for the fast approaching ultra-race – now officially 7 pounds lighter). Struggling to keep my eyes open writing this intro, so I’m going to reacquaint myself with my pillow and let Brad take you on another adventure in one of our favorite cities.

Take it away Brad.. (oh, and big thanks to Brad for keeping Intrigued HQ running smoothly while I was out battling demons and clowns in the woods).

During one of our compressed mornings in Las Vegas, we had tough choices to make. Brian had assigned me three bird locations to visit. However, during day one of the trip, we lost over half a day trying to get a flat tire fixed. (See A New Low – link here) While scheming in the hotel room the night before, Jan and I decided to visit two big locations in the same day. Crazy, I know. What can you do? We had already planned many activities for after birding hours. Early one morning, we headed to Clark County Wetlands on the edge of Las Vegas.

As Jan and I were wandering through the Wetlands, we kept seeing opened Acme wooden crates everywhere. Even though Merlin couldn’t pick it up, I thought I could hear a “meep meep” sound followed quickly by little clouds of dust. Finally, as we were heading to one of the small ponds, we spotted this bird in the shadows, next to little anvil-shaped holes in the dust.

Hit the jump to read more about a certain Coyote’s nemesis!

Whatchu looking at?…by Brad Marks

Haunts in the home stretch, weather is annoying me more than the ridiculous tiny screws on purchased props, trying to get miles in on a tired body and my head has put out an APB in search of its favorite pillow. Welcome to “hauntlife”. Last thing you want me to do is try to put sentences together, so even though Brad is out on assignment, he’s going to bring you an adventure from the exotic, untamed and dangerous realm of .. wait, did he say “subdivision”!?! Must be the sleep deprivation. Take care everyone, you are assuredly in good hands for the next week or two.

Take it away Brad…

Intrigued HQ gave Jan and I this assignment during the Fall of 2023, just after Brian’s visit to Las Vegas (here). We were just coming off a multi-day visit to Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, with probably well north of 10,000 images already in the tin. Jan and I met Allyson in Las Vegas (isn’t that fun when your adult children choose to spend time with you, even if they have to pay for the airfare?) to spend time together and see a few shows. With so many demands on our time in just a few days, we were unable to look for today’s subject.

Fast forward to Spring 2024. Because of a flat tire on our rental car the prior day (see A New Low link here), we had to compress our extensive birding assignments (thanks to the taskmasters at Intrigued HQ) into one less day. On the day we found these little jewels, it really came down to either having a shower and getting cleaned up after nearly 10 hours outside in Las Vegas, or take a chance that we might find what we were looking for. I’m very glad we rolled the dice in favor of the birds.

I plugged in the secret coordinates into the GPS app, and we started on the adventure to find today’s birds. When the GPS app said, “You have arrived”, I thought for sure it had gone bonkers in the desert heat. Jan and I found ourselves in the middle of a subdivision. But the GPS app said we were there (and we all know they are never wrong) so I parked the car next to a long chain link fence. The fence was surrounding what looked like an empty city block. As I was prepping the cameras, a 40-something couple rode by on their bicycles. All they said was, “There are two of them out right now,” and pointed to the other end of the chain link fence as they pedaled away.

Finishing up camera assembly (Jan’s first as always), I gently closed the hatch on the rental so I wouldn’t frighten the birds, if they were, in fact, still there. Jan and I moseyed about a hundred yards along the length of the fence until we got to the far corner. Not knowing how large our quarry was, neither of us really knew how far out to be looking. Were these birds larger than the small scrub brush we were seeing? Or were they the size of a can of your favorite soft drink (soda or pop depending on where you are from)? Then I saw these two, sitting up proud as you please, not very far away.

Hit the jump to see what caught our attention on the other side of the fence.

Stopped in Motion

We are finally back from Colorado!! Although it took a serious chunk out of my haunt time and helping Linda photograph the TDAA Petit Prix was a lot of work, it was good to spend some time out West enjoying the views and even got a couple of mountain trail runs in. Truth be told, those runs nearly killed me – can someone please turn the oxygen mixture up out there, you are making us sea level runners suffer ha. Brad and Jan are back out on assignment and starting tomorrow my pillow will be filing a missing person report. To give Brad a break, thought I would put out a quick post before taking the next couple of weeks off.

Been running a lot at night lately. A bit cooler to relieve some of the stress on the internal temp regulator after the “July incident” and it gives me a full day to work on the props and other items on the 262 step project plan. Every once in a while something will happen or catch my attention that stops me in my tracks. Those moments remain embedded in the synapse mesh never to be forgotten. In that category, all my major childhood injuries (ex. I was pretty sure I cut my leg off at the knee when I was like 8 – still have the massive scar today), recognition for a hard earned accomplishment (no participation trophies for this kid), getting to close to that afterlife spotlight (my running escapades are well documented) and several instances when something read or heard hit me right between the eyes. For example, Malcom’s Blink book finally put to bed all that Gallop BS of being defined at at age 5, Carol’s Mindset masterpiece explained everything I was seeing in the ranks of the corporate world, Steve’s masterpiece Do Hard Things summed up my thirst for more challenges, Michael’s The Comfort Crisis is hands down my favorite read of the year (if not the decade) giving me the perfect one word answer for anyone who inquires about my ultra addiction – Misogi. In the last two weeks I’ve had two occurrences where I stopped running to appreciate what I had just heard on my selected podcast for that trek – both courtesy of Mike Rowe’s The Way I Heard It. The first was Are We All Lab Rats (link here) and today’s agony distractor, Meet the Stoics (link here – not posted on youtube yet). Spitting truth as they say.

In light of those personal life stopping moments, going with a quick montage of our feathered friends suspended in time – more due to my camera than any words of wisdom permeating their body, although, I think tiny bird headphones is an untapped market! No theme beyond “in flight”, just some shots I pulled out of the queue I thought you might like to see. Let’s begin shall we…

Starting off our little series is a Bonaparte’s Gull.

Hit the jump to see more images honoring my latest stopped in my tracks moment.

A New Low…by Brad Marks

I had to press pause on the haunt work as Linda and I are on a quick run out to Colorado for the Teacup Dog Agility Association Petit Prix (aka Nationals). Originally we opted to pass on this show being so close to our party, but they really wanted Linda to photograph the event and made an offer she could not refuse. I was able to bring some stuff along to work on while out there, but there will be more sleepless nights as soon as we make it back home. While we head up to the mile high city, Brad is going to take us in the opposite direction – as in waaay waaay down. Note, Brad and Jan are also currently out in the field. I shudder to think what kind of chaos has besieged the unsupervised Intrigued HQ.

Take it away Brad…

We at Intrigued will go to the highest heights to bring you stories about wildlife. You may remember Ravenpalooza (here) brought to you from an altitude of 14,115 feet above sea level. This time though, we’ve hit a new low at Intrigued . . . 282 feet below sea level to be exact. For those keeping score at home, this is the lowest point in North America.

Wait, I know Intrigued has had undersea stories featured before. Are you telling me someone went 282 below the sea?

Nope, but we were 282 feet below sea level. Jan and I were standing on mostly dry land. Think about it for a few seconds. As Brian consistently tells me, “No photo, didn’t happen.” We brought proof.

Hit the jump to go….well, to go below ha!

Cha Cha Slide…by Brad Marks

Welcome to September everyone! By now everyone knows what I am up to all day and all night so no need to belabor that point beyond apologizing more for being out of pocket for a good portion of this month. The good news is Brad and Jan have made it back safely from their latest excursion with SD cards full of future Intrigued fodder. I suspect it will take them some time to parse and process all the finds from that recent adventure (they have a ways to go before closing in on my 3 year backlog level…ha), but he has several accounts from outings earlier in the year that we will be featuring this month. To start things off, let’s go with some field work we did together.

Take it away Brad…

It was time for the 2^nd Annual Intrigued Corporate Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods. Actually, that sounds like a good thing to start officially, with a bit of rebranding: Intrigued (or International) Warbler Watch & Walk in the Woods, or the IW4. Intrigued HQ started it here first, go spread the word! I think that might be a great T-shirt idea paired with our corporate logo. We must get the Intrigued marketing department to work on that right away. (XXL Tall in Tec for me please.)

I met Brian at Intrigued HQ to start our day. When I arrived at HQ, Brian had already been chasing a Tennessee Warbler around the estate. Being new to this bird, I asked what color it was (guessing a shade of yellow) so I could look for motion. Brian replied, “It’s olive-colored with some yellow on it.” Great! Just like every single leaf in the woods at that point. We could certainly hear two of them communicating. I think one was saying, “Watch this, I can get those guys to look over here.” And the other would reply, “Good one, now it’s my turn. Watch their heads snap around the other direction.” After spending time being laughed at by the Tennessee Warbler (they can trash talk, must have learned it from Raven and Ruger), we decided to expand our warbler search to nearby Jubilee State Park grounds. Luckily, the park is only a few minutes from HQ and makes for great “Work from Woods” days.

Brian led us down a new trail, well, new to Intrigued outings at least. However, a new trail always has the risk of an unseen root reaching up to grab you. A couple of hundred feet into the trail, even I could make out warbler calls throughout the woods without using Merlin, though it is good for a memory aid to have bird songs and calls recorded with the timestamp to help sort photos later.

After a brief hike and photographing warblers for about 90 minutes (do you know how spastic they can be?), we decided to head to a new spot to see what we could see. Cresting a small hill, Brian noticed the trail back to the parking lot was mostly mud near the creek. The whole area had just had inches of rain a few days prior. What good are hiking boots if they aren’t muddy? We continued.

In the middle of the squishiest part of the trail, Brian said to stop and pointed to a small tree. I followed his outstretched arm to find a small yellow dot flitting about the twigs in a tree.

Hit the jump to find out what caught our attention!

The Pauraque Game

Well, we have come to the end of August. I’ve stated it before and I’ll state it again, somehow our planet is revolving faster as our days seems to be at least 22.47% shorter than when I was still in the corporate grind. If someone has a scientific explanation for that (and a non-made up percentage) I would love to hear it. Part of that may be perception as I am consumed by the upcoming haunt event…but I’m not letting go of astronomical anomalies. The good news is Brad and Jan have safely returned from their field assignment. Decided to give them a bit more rest and a chance to start going through their loot of images. Brad will be taking a bulk of the September publishing while I dance with the demons. Going with a quick one today to close the month out. It’s the Estero Llano Grande Pauraque Game!

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to learn about this fun activity the next time you are frolicking around the Rio Grande Valley.

Nose Down

Evil clowns to the left of me, horrific jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle of haunt season! Technically, Halloween is around 67 days away, but here at Intrigued the spook comes early. We hold our annual Haunted Trail event the last weekend of September which translates to “where the hell did the year go already!!”. We pretty much work on this event 352 days a year taking off only 2 days for the event itself and 5 days to tear it all down and get it back into storage..capping it off with 2 days of badly needed rest before the 50 mile ultra race a few days later. That doesn’t even count all the work Linda does to prepare and put on the party itself (house decor, food, drinks etc.) and the invaluable Haunt Squad who must have something mentally wrong with them as they keep signing up to help out every year (must be the free beer … and root beer ha!). Guessing needless to say, but I am nose down trying to get ready knowing full well I’ll still be putting the finishing touches on the trail as the guests start arriving. Apologies for being out of pocket lately, especially on reading all your great posts – will probably let Brad handle the posts once he and Jan returns from assignment. To hold you over until then, going with a featured feathered friend that also has its nose down.

Long-Billed Curlew found on Bolivar Jetty, Texas in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about this uniquely billed creature.

Piping Plover

Greetings from the road everyone! Brad and Jan are still on assignment and Linda and I are sweating it out here in Kansas. I thought the CMAR race day was hot, but this is something else (link here). After a weeks of high 60F’s to mid 70Fs at home, we find ourselves in a heat index upwards of 107F. Definitely a good time to be on the short break from training. Even managed to stop by a couple of birding locations this morning and added two more species for the annual count bring the Average Year’s total to 298 (link here, not updated yet). A mere 2 short of the annual goal – a good thing as the birding has been weak in this latter half of the year. Are other birders noticing this downturn? There was a theory that our Cicada eruption pushed the migrators further north, but that has passed now and still little piping up to be heard.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, but for now, let’s turn are attention to a feathered friend with plenty of piping.

Piping Plover found on South Padre Island Convention Center Flats January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our encounter with this diminutive bird heralding from North Dakota.

Limping

It’s been a few since our last meeting, well, at least on the wild side. Brad was manning the sister sight while I hunkered down on the mothership to get caught up on the latest race posts. I recall B. from the UK requesting more gory details on this year’s failed 50K ultra trail attempt – well that is officially out there (link here). Warning it is “graphic”, but does answer B’s real question as to why you should NEVER run an ultra ha. On a better note, the Bix7 race recap is also published (link here). That road event went a whole lot better, but ended more emotional as it marked my official retirement from that race after 20 consecutive years.

Somewhat running related, I decided everyone could probably use a good laugh about now. Chaos has laid siege to headlines – the world’s on fire, drama is the rule rather than the exception and angst has consumed empathy. Time to smile at my expense ha. This morning I competed in the new TC .3 mile sprint. Did the recent Olympic events spur that commitment…no…did the glint of a finisher medal catch my eye…no…perhaps a personal misogi purification ritual (currently reading the Comfort Crisis) to rekindle the fast twitch leg muscle fibers long since forgotten…nope. Truth is it was the garbage truck. Normally our trash isn’t picked up until after 11:00am. The Monday morning routine, internal alarm clock rings, the covers are thrown back and jump into the day. Translated, Linda comes in and announces it is garbage day reinforcing her “Waker of the Dead” moniker earned at the last ultra race. Fast forwarding, I slapped on some slip in sloggers by the door and head out to the trash container – halfway there, the ears pick up the distinct beeping of the truck. Power walk the best I could in the loose shoes the 300 or so feet to the street – it had moved on to the neighbor. Mind you this is rural, so when I say neighbor, think at least a 10th of a mile. I started running down the middle of the road pulling the can behind me waving like a lunatic to get the driver’s attention. No luck, gets in truck and goes to the next one which is two 10ths past the last stop. Now I am sprinting..mind you it looks more like the ministry of silly walks because I’m hauling the can down the middle of the road trying to keep the damn shoes on while waving. THANKFULLY none of my neighbors saw me or I would have assuredly made it into the local newspaper – pretty sure I heard a couple of Deer yucking it up in the nearby trees. That stop had several cans giving me extra time to cover the ground. Not sure who was more startled, me for being able to run that fast in those conditions or the driver who kept looking at me and then back up the road where my driveway was. Apparently our previous driver quit and the new guy went back to the original order of the houses. I am here to declare that if the Olympics are willing to add Breakdancing, they need to look into Trash Can Sprinting for Los Angeles in 2028 – gonna get me a medal!!

Quite pleased with myself (although still glancing around to make sure nobody was watching beyond those heckling Deer) I limped back to the house dragging the now much lighter garbage can. Walked in the house and was met with “What the hell happened to you!?!”. “Well, I started training for the 2028 Olympics, but we should get better wheels on the trash can – now I must hydrate”. Linda simply turned and went about her day. Tells you something about the things she takes as normal when it comes to me hehehe. Hopefully your smile will last the rest of the day!

In honor of my post competition limp, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend!

Limpkins found at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in Micanopy, Florida in April 2023

Hit the jump to read more about the “Limp”kins spotted on our trip last year through the Florida Panhandle.

First to Last, Two Decades in the Making

July has traditionally been a big running month here at Intrigued. The month usually kicks off with the Cry Me a River 50K Ultra-Trail Run, somewhere in middle Jan has her run for St. Jude and the end of the month has been devoted to the Bix 7 Race held in Davenport, IA. Being that we are now officially in August, each of those events has now been held. Jan came through with flying colors in her charity effort, but a case of mixed results in my races. The catastrophe that was CMAR was detailed in the previous recollection post (link here). That is still a bitter pill to swallow, especially after today’s training run. Noticed last night the temps were going to drop back into the high 60’sF and decided to head back out to the Illinois Bluff trail to assess the level of damage done from the heat on race day. The internal thermostat out of play, I cruised through 10 miles of the course with little effort – frustrated in my bad weather luck early in the month, but ecstatic that I had not lost the stamina. There is some variability with the 50K weather, however, it is not realistic to expect anything better than HOT/HUMID when it comes to the Bix 7. Based on the earlier beating from the heat, I was less than confident in upcoming 7 miles along the Mississippi River bluff.

Hit the jump to read how the race went and why this race was extra special this year.

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